This Week in Digital Marketing: Coca Cola's Big Hire & More

“It’s been a role fraught with discussion about its necessity, but Coca-Cola is the latest high profile brand to appoint its first chief digital marketing officer to help steer the business towards becoming a ‘digital company, but not just to put ads in social media.’”

“Twitter is phasing out its lead generation ad format that brands could use to request people’s names, Twitter handles and email addresses…A Twitter spokesperson did not respond to questions asking why Twitter had decided to eliminate the ad format and what, if any, alternatives Twitter offers for brands that had used it.”

“Facebook plans to open up 360-degree live streaming to Pages using its Live API tool – that allows them to broadcast on Facebook through non-phone cameras like a 360-degree rig – sometime in the coming months.”

“Amazon and Walmart own the top numbers. Except for Toys R Us and Walmart, all brands increased their number of email campaigns versus last year, within a range of 111% (Target) and 32% (Macy’s).”

Amazon produced the top read rates in the group. Year-over-year read rate increases occurred for all brands except Amazon, Dick’s and Best Buy. Target drove the largest increase (40%); Dick’s saw the largest decrease (18%).

With the exception of Dick’s, all brands maintained inbox placement exceeding 90%. However, all brands’ inbox placement eroded versus last year – except for Macy’s – and most seriously at Dick’s. Contact frequency may be an issue here.”

“A Forrester Research study commissioned by SteelHouse revealed that consumers who use multiple devices grew 13% to exceed 160 million people in the U.S. this year, while PC only fell by 34% and mobile-only users experienced 32% growth.

Within mobile, they found smartphone users grew 17%, while tablet users grew 164%.”